The Circular economy: The missing layer in Ghana’s flood prevention strategy

On the morning of 29 June 2026, roughly 140 millimetres of rain fell on Accra in a single day, more than double the heaviest downpour of the year before. By the time the water pulled back, at least 12 people were dead, according to news reports citing Ghana’s National Fire Service, among them a mother and her child swept away in the Achimota-Agbogbloshie area. Rescue teams pulled more than 400 people from submerged homes, the same reports said. The neighbourhoods that go under every year, Kaneshie, Alajo, Odawna, Weija and Kwame Nkrumah Circle, went under again.

None of this was a surprise. Accra has recorded flooding almost every year since 1935, and the city still carries the memory of June 2015, when floodwaters and a fuel-station fire at Circle killed at least 150 people in a single night. The scenes that precede each disaster have become a ritual. Dark clouds gather, traders lift their goods off the ground, drivers hunt for higher routes, and families in low-lying areas watch the water climb toward their doorsteps, knowing that a few hours of rain can undo years of work. ...